Today is the grand finale of our Christmas 2025 celebrations! Come along to see Honey B’s group enjoy the festivities in today’s blog video. In case you missed it, here are links to Jamie and Cy‘s groups’ celebrations, which we shared over the past couple of days. Happy holidays!
Mave
You Have Questions? We Have Answers… Hopefully…
When we post the daily blog, the comment section are usually peppered with great questions you have, our beloved followers. Whether it’s about the chimpanzees’ personalities, the caregivers’ work, the ongoing introductions, medical procedures, and a vast array of other topics, you always ask great, sometimes hard-hitting, questions. It has been a long while since we have done this, but we would like to extend a warm invitation for any and all questions you may have. We will try to answer your questions as a blog topic of discussion to hopefully really answer your questions as detailed to the best of our abilities. I fall in the category of people who think there is “no dumb question” as it relates to the sanctuary, the chimpanzees, primates in general, advocacy, etc. If you’re thinking of question you’re hesitant to ask, there’s a big chance someone else is wondering the same thing. I know I probably was at some point.
Again, we will try to answer your questions to the best of our abilities or at the very least try to lead you in the right direction. You can always check out the previous call outs for questions (here, and here) if to see if any of those spark any ideas of things you were wondering.
And then there was Mave…
Lounge: To Lie, Sit, or Stand in a Lazy Way
Everyone has their favorite way of lounging. Here are a few ways we lounge around the sanctuary. Which style of lounging do you prefer?
The State of a (forming) Union
We are continuing the process of introducing George to Cy’s group of 6, and are preparing for a very exciting next step. Now seems like a good time to provide you all with a synopsis of what we have done so far, and where we hope to go next. If all goes well, George will soon be living with other chimpanzees full-time.
We began our introduction process with short (~1 hour) afternoon meetings with George and each of the individuals of Cy’s group, first focusing on Cy, Terry, and Rayne as those that we thought would be the most accepting of George. We wanted to give George positive introduction experiences to set him up for success before introducing him to others who may be more difficult. George did very well with Cy and Terry to start, and over the course of multiple meetings had some misunderstandings, all of which they were able to navigate. In these initial intros, he struggled the most with Rayne, which we later saw to be a trend with other females when he met Lucky and Dora. With the males, he was often quick to engage in play, and later would allow himself to be groomed, whereas the females seem to find him to be more of a threat (understandably – his displays are impressive!) and often sought reassurance or to groom, which he seems more uncomfortable with than play. George was also uncomfortable with being groomed in certain areas, and would quickly disengage when individuals tried to groom him in those areas. The females were generally less accepting of this behavior, and would become upset.
Cy grooms George
Once George had met Cy, Terry, and Rayne on multiple occasions, we started to include individuals from the remainder of Cy’s group into the introduction schedule. George met Gordo and we were happily surprised by how well they did together, and how calm Gordo remained even when George displayed repeatedly. George met Dora, then Lucky, and as we went, we changed our introduction plan to accommodate what the chimps were showing us that they needed. We introduced George to Mave to help him learn how to interact with females, as Mave is generally more confident than Lucky and Dora, and Mave showed us she was willing to hold George accountable when he acted inappropriately. We lengthened the time of the introductions, and let misunderstandings and conflicts play out more without closing the door to separate the chimps, though we were prepared to do so if needed. This is difficult to do as the human observer – we want to protect our chimpanzee friends, and conflict feels scary. But conflict is an important part of chimpanzee life, as is the reconciliation that follows. We needed George to learn (or show us he knows) how to reconcile after a conflict, before we could feel confident in future integration into a larger social group. These longer introductions allowed the chimpanzees time to reconcile, and George showed us that given time (and without the option to just ignore the other individual because they were no longer sharing space), he can do it.
During this stage, Terry and George had several conflicts during their introductions, but were given time to reconcile and by the end of their time together were again playing and grooming. This is promising for George’s future as he joins a larger social group, as he was able to navigate each of these situations successfully.
Terry grooms George
From there, we moved to all day introductions of one individual of Cy’s group with George (for Terry, Cy, Gordo, and Rayne). We chose to continue afternoon introductions with Dora and Lucky, as we thought they would be more successful in all day introductions down the line, with Cy there as well to lessen their anxiety. During these all day introductions, they got to experience more of a normal day together. They ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and were given access to the chute and The Bray. They spent more time without direct supervision of the humans (though we were monitoring them from afar via video monitors).
Gordo grooms George
The next step? Cy comes to live with George, and we will begin to build the group around them. Before adding in more individuals, we will give opportunities for Cy to assert his dominance over George to help him understand where his place will be within the larger group. A lot of this will come simply from living together full time. Cy may demand first access to his favorite foods at meal time (like corn), to get the first look at the newest magazines, or to be the first one to interact with the humans. From there, we will continue to follow the chimps’ lead as we navigate the introduction process. I’m excited for the opportunities ahead, and hopeful for George as he begins another big step in his journey here.
In the News: People. Person. Chimp.
What is personhood? What is a person? Who deserves to bear those titles? It’s an argument that is fought for several years.
If you follow other NAPSA sanctuaries online, then you might be familiar with some cases that have taken place that paved the way for certain individuals to call a sanctuary home. There’s Sandra at Center for Great Apes, who in 2019 was granted rights as a “non-human person” in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In that case, the judge granted the basic rights of life, freedom, and a premise of “no harm” either physically or psychologically to Sandra and soon thereafter she made the trip to Florida.
Unlike Sandra, Leo and Hercules didn’t win their case to have habeas corpus granted to them, though they did make their way to Project Chimps afterward. In the United States, the fight to grant chimpanzees (or any species really) rights as a living being is a tougher fight. What seems to be the main sticking points are; does a “person” mean “human” and does a “thing” mean “everything else other than human whether it be living or inanimate?”
The reason this came to my mind is because there was a hearing in Michigan today about this very topic. There are currently seven chimpanzees who live at DeYoung Family Zoo. Animal rights organizations have been pleading their case to have these seven be transferred to an accredited sanctuary (Note: I just want to make it clear I am not talking about us.). The route they have chosen is to take the case of non-human animal personhood to court. The ruling on this hearing is still pending as I am writing.
In the U.S., there are two legal categories that fall under the law: persons and things. In a sense, this particular fight is if chimpanzees are persons or things. There is a great reference book called “Chimpanzee Rights: A Philosophers’ Brief,” which dives pretty deep into this argument. If you would like to read more about it, I would recommend that book. It breaks down the arguments for and against for considering chimpanzees as persons in a language I wouldn’t ever to be able give justice.
I am by no means an expert on this case and don’t know the full, complete details regarding those chimpanzees and their situation. But I know in my heart of hearts, chimpanzees are more than mere “things.” They are not simply property that can be sold or traded. They are smart. They are curious. They are complex. And yes, they also can be goofy. They can make their own choices and their own decisions in a way that mirrors humans. They can send signals, whether it be vocal, gestural, or just simply body posture, and reversely, they can receive those signals as well, even from us humans. They are brave. They are fearful. They are confident. They are anxious. They may not be human, but they are people.
Now, for what I’m sure most of you came here for: photos from the day!
Picture This: The Day in Snapshots
Today was pretty calm around the chimp house, but I’m diving into the highlights and capturing some of the best moments from the day.
This morning with Mave:
Dora enjoying her nut, which she played with for awhile but ultimately never ate:
Negra found a giant zucchini we put out on Young’s Hill for a forage, she had to take breaks while snacking on it:
And Cy enjoying a pepper during his lunch:
Big Wins: Training Progress & Happy Reunions
George has been putting in the work with his positive reinforcement training, and it’s paying off. He’s already mastered showing presenting different body parts and participating in Kardia Mobile ECG readings without a hitch. Now, he’s learning to put body presentation to use by placing his hands and feet inside an X-ray box that is set up on the mesh of one of his rooms – we use these whenever we need a quick X-ray of the chimps hands or feet. On top of that, he’s just started practicing presenting his index finger for blood pressure checks—stay tuned for more on that in an upcoming blog post.
As for Dora, she’s taking a little break from Cy’s group for a few days and is off on a girls’ getaway with Mave and Honey B (Willy B is also present). I think it’s safe to say they are having a great time together!
